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 Review by EGeezer 
UPDATED: 176 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 3407 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Mount Sterling,Madison,OH
 $27 per month
 about 1 days
 "No phone support, 911 service has issues."
 "911 issues -Still evaluating"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I signed up on May 15, 2009 for North America Unlimited and DID personal unlimited. The $27.40 monthly includes a $1.50 911 fee. This is a couple of bucks less than ATT Callvantage. However, price is secondary to reliabiltiy and quality to me.
I ordered the Linksys PAP2T TA after emailing the Callcentric support to verify support and recommendations. The PAP2T resides behind a NAT router and seems to have no issues with that setup.
Response time to online support questions was usually 1-3 hours and the responder addressed the questions well and accurately. It's somewhat clumsy and time consuming, however, to try to carry on an interactive conversation VIA email and online reporting.
When the PAP2T arrived, I registered for the services. The PAP2T setup was fairly straightforward and the Callcentric documentation was accurate and essential to the setup.
Phone quality is good and I have no issues with quality so far. Sometimes I have to go on hook and back off to get a dial tone, a minor inconvenience I did not report to CallCentric. The first day there was about a 30 minute to one hour hour (not sure) unscheduled outage in the evening. There has been one scheduled outage May 28 2009 between 2AM and 4AM EDT for maintenance, reported by Callcentric as having been less than five minutes.
911 seems to be a problem. One issue I consider resolved is that the caller ID shows a different number at our 911 cal center. However, they are able to call me back automatically using the number on their display so I consider that resolved.
There are still two other unresolved issues with the 911 service.
I contacted our local 911 administrative office for permission to test the system. Two possibly critical issues arose. On May 15, I opened trouble tickets with CallCentric to report the issues, and provided contact information to CallCentric for our local 911 administrator so they could work directly with them.
The issues are;
1) Although my complete address is reported correctly to our 911 system, the GPS coordinates sent to our 911 system shows my location approximately 850 miles away, somewhere northwest of Kansas City.
2) The ESN (Emergency Services Number) being provided to our 911 service is incorrect. The ESN is what the 911 operator uses to determine the correct police, fire and EMS to dispatch to the caller's location and this can be a critical factor in quick response or calls going to the wrong responders. .
According to Callcentric support, these issues have been forwarded to their 911 service provider as of 15 May 2009. As of this date (28 May 2009), there has been no resolution of these issues reported to me. CallCentric did update me on 22 MAY 2009 that some testing was to occur earlier this week.
I will update this review as things progress(or don't progress).
Followup comments:  
John Sherman
@optonline.net | 911 issues Thank you for bringing this up.
Most likely the 911 company is used by multiple Voip services, therefore, all of us must take these issues seriously.
Please keep us updated. | |
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CallC
@verizon.net
| regarding "unscheduled outage" you reported "The first day there was about a 30 minute to one hour hour (not sure) unscheduled outage in the evening."
- I may assure you that if there would happen even a 10 minute outage on CC network - this list would already be flamed with everybody asking something like "CC's down?". There was NO such thing at the day you reported nor anywhere around last 3+ months. When such an outage happens - there is a posted note within account's Dash panel as well as everyone here (on the DSLRs) would tell you (just ask) that "yes" (or "no") they also experienced something similar. The best way to find out - just open a trouble-ticket - you most likely to get a response very quickly.
Regarding technical support (which you "rewarded" at 60%) - Callcentric is known in industry as a very responsive provider with very well trained technical support engineers who work on each and any issue one may have until complete resolution is received. You may ask this (DSLR) list about this fact as well. If you have any complain - you may report it factually here and/or open a ticket with CC and work it through. I hope - people can confirm my words.
Thank you. | |
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John Sherman
@optonline.net
| 911---?? We all know that Callcentric has very good customer support. And obviously they are proud of their company and product, because the above reply seems kind of defensive.
But the more important issue was not mentioned.
The 911 issue reported by the reviewer is important. What is the situation in that regard? | |
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EGeezer
Summertime -
Premium
join:2002-08-04
Country!
 ·Callcentric
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·AT&T CallVantage
1 edit | Re: regarding "unscheduled outage" you reported said by CallC :
"The first day there was about a 30 minute to one hour hour (not sure) unscheduled outage in the evening."
- I may assure you that if there would happen even a 10 minute outage on CC network - this list would already ...
The outage as I described was my experience. When I went to the dashboard, the status message said something about restarting some server(s) and reprovisioning users. As for the time, it was in the late evening and the time, as I mentioned is estimated since I did not constantly monitor the site or continuously watch my "phone" light to see if I was re-provisioned.
You missed the probability that this was not a global outage of the system, but rather a limited one affecting one or more areas. In that case, I would not expect them to post messages to the dashboards of all those clients who were still functioning normally, only those who were affected. If the number of affected users was small, then I'd not expect a flood of posts for it, especially late in the evening.
quote:
Regarding technical support (which you "rewarded" at 60%) - Callcentric is known in industry as a very responsive provider with very well trained technical support engineers who work on each and any issue one may have until complete resolution is received.
I was clear in stating the negative factors. I rated it at 60% because of the lack of phone support, which I mentioned, and the larger factor of the almost two-week-old unresolved 911 issues, which IMO could result in delays in emergency response. I will continue to rate it at 60% until the 911 issue is resolved. quote:
You may report it factually here and/or open a ticket with CC and work it through.
Which is what I have done. I have tickets open for unresolved problems. I did not open a ticket for the unscheduled outage because my dashboard status on the site indicated they were having problems which were consistent with what I was seeing, so a ticket would have been unnecessary.
I agree with "John Sherman" that the 911 issue is important, especially for those who may use the service as their primary telephone. At this time the issue and ticket(s) remain open.
As I stated previously, I will update this review as things progress(or don't progress).
--
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -- Justice Louis D. Brandeis | |
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